Tow or tug boats are securely connected to other marine vessels, such as barges, ships or boats to propel such marine vessels through waterways or to and from harbour docks. The waterways may be rivers, canals and the like. These tow tugs are generally connected to the propelled vessels with high strength steel cable which is pulled into very high tension for secure connection, particularly when a tow tug is connected to push a group of barges connected together into a "string" or "tow", for example. In these pushing arrangements the tow tugs serve both to propel the barge string and also to serve as the "rudder" for the barge string as it is pushed along.
The individual cable tension employed to securely connect a tug/barge string combination can be as much as 60,000 lbs., for example. When a cable under high tension is suddenly disconnected, the free end of the cable whips and lashes about with great velocity. Such disconnection must be made with crew members safely out of the way. Also, the towing tug sometimes must be quickly disconnected from the barge string due to navigational contingencies. Due to tidal currents and the like, a ship tied up at a dock must be released from mooring cables under high tensional stress at times.
The present invention permits remotely actuated quick disconnection of cables from a safe distance with the reaction time to release the cable being minimal.
Presently known prior art for this invention consists of U.S. Pat. Nos. 37,681, 678,798, 1,417,222, 1,462,102, 1,458,404, 2,485,416, 3,811,720, 3,831,486, 3,892,196, 4,034,992, 4,233,923, 4,389,907, 4,540,210, and 4,618,179. Specifically, the present invention is in improvement to release mechanisms and systems as disclosed in Pat. No. 4,540,210.